Born-Late Rocketeer Tells All

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The Syracuse Rocket Club’s annual Family Picnic Launch was no picnic for several major rocket flights, unfortunately. There was a lot of hard work that didn’t pay off, about which I feel bad. Undeservedly, my not so hard work generally produced good results. I’ve flown fewer rockets this year than in the past, but today…

NORAD’s done. I shot it with Dull Coat, put on rail buttons and an Estes retainer (I should’ve left more motor tube sticking out, but I think it’ll be okay; it’s epoxied to both the tube and the centering ring), and rigged the shock cord. I overdid the clear coat on the decals and they…

I put the fins on, and the (square) launch lugs, and I discovered the v-notches in my Saranac carton may be good for supporting round rockets, but they’re even better for square ones. Square is relative, though. You can see the body tube isn’t quite square; the sides bow out just a little, and the…

I was willing to accept the spiral filling job on the section of the tube with the holes because, holes, but for the forward end of the tube, it wasn’t good enough. So I went to the art department at the universitiy bookstore and look what I found:Six for about $2.50. And look at the…

Here’s the nose cone. The fins are very rough especially at the back, but they won’t be seen and drag is not exactly a prime concern here. The cone itself I treated with Elmer’s white glue and sanded before doing the painting. Gordon Agnello’s an advocate of this technique and having tried using CA to…

The spirals are going to need more work. Meanwhile I painted the stuffer tube. And no, I did not fill the spirals on it. I was in the hobby store buying a can of Testors Dull Coat for the NORAD, and noticed the Lime Ice lacquer. Mostly I use Rustoleum 2X enamel, it’s cheap and…

The annoying thing about this kit is the body tube. Not because it’s square but because of the spirals. They’re deep and wide enough that… look, I am not anal about tube spirals. There are few rockets I’ve built where I was really concerned about the spirals being a little bit visible. Most of the…

I put the decals on. There were a lot. It went okay. The wraparound ones stretched surprisingly much, given how careful I tried to be not to pull too hard on them, so the carefully measured length failed to match the diameter after all. No one will ever notice. I was thinking about how to…

It’s only been eleven months since I last blogged about this build. I’ve done a little in that time. First primer coat last fall, second coat earlier this year when painting weather came back; then white (I’d been thinking light grey, but then I couldn’t find my light grey paint, so I went with white,…

I did paint the nose white since the last report, and I built the cardstock cone. I unfortunately couldn’t get it to be as round as I would have liked.But, well, it’ll do, I suppose. From the side:Huh, didn’t even notice the coke bottling until I saw this picture. The forward end of the nose…